GCA Scholarships

Since 1928 when the Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture was established, The Garden Club of America has funded more than 1,300 recipients. The GCA offers 28 merit-based scholarships in 12 areas.

The Garden Club of America contacts universities, arboreta and botanic gardens to encourage them to advertise our scholarships to their students and interns. Twelve of the scholarships are managed by GCA staff and volunteers. Selection committees comprised of the GCA and community volunteers read applications and recommend candidates to be voted on in March each year. For fifteen of the GCA scholarships, the specialized level of knowledge necessary to choose the most compelling research projects requires that we collaborate with the following outside organizations:

These organizations each establish a panel of scientists to recommend award recipients in their respective fields. In addition to scholarships actively managed by the GCA, we collaborate with the American Academy in Rome which annually awards the GCA Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture using funds endowed by the GCA.

In 2018, 73 scholars were awarded over $308,400 to support a variety of academic endeavors ranging from summer environmental study and field work, to graduate level research. Their study will take place in institutions across the nation and some will conduct field work across the globe.

GCA Scholars have become leaders in their fields of study. Recently, a selection panel member reviewed a list of past recipients of The GCA Awards in Tropical Botany, which were first awarded in the 1980s. These scholars are now well established in their careers. The selection panel member commented that the names appearing on the list are a “veritable who’s who” of the Systematics and Forest Ecology fields today. The Garden Club of America is deservedly proud of its scholarship program.

Scholarship Opportunities Abound

For example, the GCA Fellowship in Ecological Restoration offers an $8,000 annual grant for graduate study and research at a leading accredited university in the United States. Fields of study of past recipients have ranged from forestry to applied plant sciences to ecology and evolutionary biology.